U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich appeared in a Russian court Tuesday to appeal his detention on espionage charges as part of a Kremlin crackdown on dissent during the war in Ukraine. Both the journalist and the U.S. government have strongly denied the allegations.
Journalists and supporters present in court got their first glimpse in weeks of the Wall Street Journal reporter, the first U.S. correspondent since the Cold War to be detained in Russia for alleged espionage.
The Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, detained the 31-year-old reporter on March 29 in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, and charged him with attempting to obtain classified information about a Russian arms factory.
Gershkovich, the media outlet where he works and the U.S. government have denied that he engaged in espionage and demanded his release.
The Moscow City Court was to consider the defense’s appeal of his detention on Tuesday.
The reporter faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Russian lawyers have pointed out that previous espionage investigations took between a year and 18 months, a time in which the convict would have little contact with the outside world.